BY TEMI OHAKWE, ABUJA – The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), has said that its approvals for research grants will be doubled in 2021, from over 128 approvals made in 2020.
The Executive Secretary of TetFund, Prof Suleiman Bogoro, who stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, said the approvals will be announced as soon as the Board of Trustees gives its nod.
Speaking while receiving a contingent of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, (NIPS), Kuru, Senior Executive Course 43, 2021, Bogoro said that qualified institutions will draw a maximum of N50 million research grants from the N7.5 billion National Research Fund (NRF).
The TetFund boss said in the 2021 budget, which is awaiting approval, the agency will fund the establishment of more molecular labs and research on gene sequencing and phytogenic medicine, as well as vaccine research and production, as a key area of unraveling the lethal COVID-19 pandemic.
According to him, under the instruction of President Muhammadu Buhari, the fund provided research intervention between N250 to N300 million, to set up, at least, a quarter of the molecular labs established in the country.
He said; “We discovered that those facilities are helpful for both research and clinical purposes. The facilities will help sustain medical research in the country”.
Bogoro commended Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi for its ingenuity in formulating a system of tracking cattles that have been rustled; as well as Redeemers University for its advanced research on gene sequencing; and Covenant University for being ranked among the best universities in the world.
Speaking on NIPS, Bogoro noted that since the institute was carefully constituted in 1979, it has remained so with representation from the military, various ministries, and others, who are working on behalf of the country with a high sense of responsibility.
On inclusive education, the Executive Secretary of TetFund, decried the elite’s neglect of public institutions, stressing that where education excludes any segment of the society, we are being unfair to that segment of the population.
According to him; “For some us, at our age, who are privileged and controlling a number of things, we belonged to a segment of society that got education free of charge”.
He urged NIPS and statutorily non-beneficiary institutions to use a windows of partnership with beneficiary institutions and apply for research grants through them.
Earlier, the Acting Director-General of NIPS, Brigadier General Chukwuemeka Udaya, said the institute which is over 43 years has carefully served every government, adding that the essence of the visit was to find out, deepen and further understand how TETFund has been able to get things done.
Udaya added that in year 2021, seven groups are visiting various institutions including the TETFund which has been active in getting things done.
